# Morality and the Law - Is it even possible to divorce the two? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 21, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morality-and-the-law-is-it-even-possible-to-divorce-the-two/450168 "2008-05-21T23:00:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morality-and-the-law-is-it-even-possible-to-divorce-the-two/450168/41 "2008-05-23T23:17:19Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] It is not a lack of morality, but a different view of morality. Nazi Germany represented certain moral views. They were just different views than ours.\* Same for the Ancient Romans. Or the Spartans. All these societies had moral views. They were not amoral. They are immoral from our moral position.\*\* But, our society would probably be seen an immoral by a Spartan. - I am assuming you don’t agree with a lot of the Nazi moral views. \*\* Just assuming again. [/QUOTE] And what moral decision of yours inspired you to add the annotations, eh? I think it’s _another_ one that I don’t agree with. I will concede that one can assess the moral views of a given culture. Now, do you think that _every_ law held by those cultures was aligned with those moral views? From the littering laws to the murder laws? What does a Nazi littering law look like? [QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] And people have to make decision between things like greed and altruism. The question of how greedy and how altruistic to be is a moral question. [/QUOTE] But, people _don’t_ have to make a decision, until somebody actually raises the moral question to them (or they think of it themselves). They can just _start_ greedy or altruistic, and carry on that way blithely. They can even decide not to worry about the moral considerations of their actions at all. I believe that your presumption that all decisions are assessments of morality is incorrect. Most decisions _can_ be construed as moral decisions (though your response to the example about ice cream demonstrates that sometimes it’s a heck of a stretch) but in reality a good lot of them are made without moral considerations having anything to do with it. Pragmatics, expediency, laziness, tradition, habit - there are a lot of roads to Rome, and you can’t assume that everyone _in_ Rome took the road marked “moral consideration”. ---
**Author:** ![Anomalous\_Reading](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Anomalous\_Reading](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anomalous_Reading)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morality-and-the-law-is-it-even-possible-to-divorce-the-two/450168/42 "2008-05-24T02:22:04Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain] Seems like a natural right to me, according to our founding document.. [/QUOTE] **Nitpick:** The Declaration of Independence has no legal authority and is not our founding document. It’s our divorce decree. ---
**Author:** ![Anomalous\_Reading](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Anomalous\_Reading](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anomalous_Reading)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morality-and-the-law-is-it-even-possible-to-divorce-the-two/450168/43 "2008-05-24T02:50:48Z")
Are laws prescriptive? ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morality-and-the-law-is-it-even-possible-to-divorce-the-two/450168/44 "2008-05-24T03:38:25Z")
“All law is oppression”? Yikes, okay. :rolleyes: Even if that left-field assertion is accepted, then surely even you will admit some laws prevent more oppression than they cause - like outlawing murder. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morality-and-the-law-is-it-even-possible-to-divorce-the-two/450168.md?page=2)